This appears to be a complete ban. This could mean shorts will have to be closed out, puts will have to be exercised or sold, etc. Could be the beginning of a massive rally, followed by the kind of crash experienced by China, which has never allowed short-selling. Goodbye, Dow 10,000; hello, Dow 5,000.
I have no problem with selling short if you own the stock. But selling without owning or at least borrowing the stock should be a no/no. To me a NSS is the same as selling my MickeyD franchise to someone without buying it from me first, no risk to you and I loose my business. Well there is some risk if I get you in my sights, but that is impossible on WS. If I didn’t know better I would assume that NSS were invented by the Soprano family of NJ.